TVSquad

(S01E05) "I need your boobs." -- Matt Dowd to Taylor Wethersby

Hi again, everybody! Jason has American Idol duty this week, so I'll be handling the reviews for this week's installment of Eli Stone. When you think about it Idol and Eli have a lot in common...they each feature singing numbers on their shows. I guess the major difference, other than one being a reality game show and the other being a legal drama, is that no one on Idol has visions. Well, with Paula Abdul you never know. Anyway, on with the review.

I felt that this was the strongest episode of the season since the premiere and that the program may have finally hit its groove. It's been touch and go for the first few episodes as the character of Eli has been established and the cast surrounding him has been fleshed out a bit. And, there was a bit of worry when the plot started to veer away from Eli and focus on cases by the other partners in the firm. But, it looks like they found the right mix with, at least, this episode.

Perhaps it felt so different because of the changes we saw this time around. The most blatant was the elimination of Eli's opening monologue, which basically summarized what had gone on since the series began. I think it worked for a little while, but wasn't needed anymore now that the story has been established. Let's face it, if you don't know what's going on you'll eventually catch up. This doesn't mean that the start of the show was Eli free; since it is his show it would be weird if he wasn't featured somewhere in the first few minutes of the program.

Another change was the introduction of Eli's ex-fiance, Taylor, into the firm. This was a pretty logical choice for the producers to make since it killed two birds with one, um, stone. Not only did it allow more screen time for Natasha Henstridge, but it also gave her more interaction with Eli then just the occasional meeting outside of the office. I have to say that my opinion of Taylor has changed since the first time I saw her. At the beginning I thought that she was just a tad too hard on Eli. As the series has progressed she has been softening up to the point that I feel bad that Eli made the decision to leave her.

In addition to the new staff we had the opportunity to learn more about some of the existing staff at the law firm. The person who had the most focus other than Eli was attorney Matt Dowd. Matt, as best described by the ex-girlfriend who ended up being his client, is a frat boy with heart. It's an interesting mixture -- he'll talk about the chick who is suing his chick, who has a lawyer that's a chick one minute and then get all serious and emotional the next. He seems like a good attorney and has a fairly good sense of the law, but it's a bit hard to put a definite label on him.

Another person we learned about, although we had a sense of his nature previous to this episode, was Jordan's law partner Martin Posner. I do not like Posner one bit. He is the epitome of every lawyer joke that has crossed the lips of comedians for generations. He's ruthless and greedy and willing to break the rules -- like he did with Eli's case -- to keep the firm safe. I'm thinking that he is the bad cop to Jordan's 'good' cop and is more than willing to fight for evil in order to bring extra fees into W.P.K. If there is any impetus for 'New Eli' to stay 'New Eli' it's Martin and his antics.

I guess I shouldn't be too shocked that he and Patti were an item in the past as Eli's assistant is a bit devious herself. It does seem she has a good amount of scruples as she broke it off with Posner when she found out what he did to Eli. I am still not enamored with Patti and the way she treats Eli and hates Taylor -- I'm not too sure of her reasons for that. However, I am pleased with her singing voice, which she displayed during one of Eli's visions this week. Along with the Gospel choir I enjoyed her rendition of George Michael's "One More Try".

Speaking about people I'm not enamored with...I'm still not warming up to Maggie. I keep going back to the fact that, while she may be good at data gathering, she just doesn't work well with clients. Yes, I'm sure there will be an episode where she breaks out and becomes the attorney Eli thinks she should be, but I don't know if it will be good enough for me to change my mind about her.

As for Eli this week -- I'm starting to get a bit concerned about all of his whining. He whines about his visions (which interrupted him in court for the first time), he whines about breaking up with Taylor, and he whines when he steps out into the hot sun of Hawaii in a wool suit. I realize that Eli has issues right now that are muddling up his mind, but all of this complaining is going to get to me soon and I'm not going to be as sympathetic to his plight as I have been.

Next week -- Eli Stone meets L.A. Law (you'll know what I mean if you saw next week's previews) as Eli faces disbarment.